Tractor test: Claas Axion 850 When the Axion tractor range was launched in autumn 2006, it was hailed as the first tractor to be wholly developed by Claas following the Germany company’s decision to take a stake in French manufacturer Renault. No pressure, then. We try out the line’s flagship, the 165kW/225hp rated (ECE R24) Axion 850
To say that the Claas Axion was under pressure to perform from Day One is the most monumental of understatements. For this particular tractor line-up was heralded as being the first truly ‘Claas’ tractor to have rolled out of the firm’s factory site in France. OK, so the German group may have tinkered and tweaked its other previously Renault tractor products and redressed them in its familiar green and red. But Axion was reckoned to be different; it had full Claas designer input, right from white cab top to black rubber toe. Two years on, we now have the opportunity to discover up at close quarters whether Axion has indeed lived up to those early and great expectations. So, what did we find?
Other than the quite obvious in-your-face alterations to external appearance, what impressed us most about Axion was its performance in our Powermix test, where its average consumption figures work out at about 7% below the average of other tractors that have already been subjected to this DLG/profi test protocol. Theoretical perhaps, but if the tractor is saving 2.5 litres/hour on heavy work over, say, an annual 1,000 hours, that represents about a £1,700 cut in the tractor’s yearly diesel bill. And that’s clearly not a saving to be sniffed at.
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